Three teams are in charge of negotiating Ecuador’s trade agreements. Get to know who their heads are

Ecuador culminated in 2022 with the announcement of the closing of the negotiations of a trade agreement with Costa Rica and started this 2023 with the technical closure with China, the country’s first trading partner, destination of more than $4,000 million in non-oil exports and non-oil exports. mining, with a growth of 68% in 2022, according to the latest figures from the Ecuadorian Federation of Exporters (Fedexpor).

This without counting Mexico, with which open negotiations are held pending a response from the Aztec country.

On the near horizon appears South Korea, a country with which a technical closure of negotiations is projected in March or April next; and a possible start of negotiations with Panama, the Dominican Republic and Canada. The results of the aggressive commercial offensive are in sight, but who is negotiating for the country, how many are they, where do they come from?

Trade agreement with Costa Rica would be signed in San José in the first days of March

Daniel Legarda, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade, reveals that Ecuador only has three negotiating teams, although he assures that due to the austere management of the Ministry and the Vice Ministry of Foreign Trade, many of the technicians participate in the negotiations of up to three countries at the same time, although For processes such as the agreement with China, they made additional incorporations to strengthen the team.

“What we have done here is a very efficient job to be able to work with the existing teams, which is a great team of professionals, and to incorporate certain additional elements that are there for a period of time to cover the specific needs that are generated” Legarda explains. To negotiate the agreement with China, Jorge Cevallos was incorporated as chief negotiator and Vinicio Salgado as chief negotiator of the Market Access table, in addition to some technicians.

Ensures that all recruits have experience in other processes. Cevallos, who has worked in the private sector, especially in the chambers and the industrial sector, participated in the FTA negotiations with the United States. While Salgado participated in the negotiations with the European Union, also in the FTA with the United States, in the incorporation of Ecuador into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and has been linked to various agricultural sectors and groups related to international trade.

Cevallos, Salgado and the technicians came to the Ministry under a contract for professional fees.

“What we have increased are the payments of professional fees for these people, which is not greater in relation to the State’s spending, we are talking about the process in China, for example, cost around $100,000 in additional expenses for the Government for the Ecuadorian State”, comments Legarda.

While, for the processes of Costa Rica, Mexico and South Korea, no additional expenses were incurred, since they were carried out with the internal team of the sub-secretaries and departments of the Ministry. Negotiations with Mexico and South Korea were in charge of the internal team of the Negotiations Undersecretary, headed as chief negotiator by Undersecretary Edwin Vásquez.

In the coming weeks, the chief negotiators of China and Ecuador will define the date and place for the signing of the FTA

In the case of Costa Rica, the Undersecretary of Origin, Javier Latorre, was in charge as chief negotiator. “He took care of that negotiation; and both teams (Latorre’s and Vásquez’s) from those three countries (Costa Rica, Mexico and South Korea), therefore they have been internal to the different departments in charge of these sub-secretariats, somewhat reconfiguring the aid to provide in certain processes”, explains the Vice Minister.

Why can this be done? Legarda explains that at that level of officials there is a group of professionals who are aware of the WTO rules and who have participated in other negotiation processes in the country, many of them in the European Union, processes in Central America as well, of the recent EFTA and the agreement with Chile, which is why they constitute an excellent basis for any process.

Canada is the process that is possibly closest to starting for Ecuador, within the markets with which there are still no formal negotiations: Panama and the Dominican Republic. For the process with Canada, Legarda anticipates that they plan to use a figure similar to that of China, that is, the hiring of a chief negotiator and perhaps an additional person who can be incorporated to lead this process temporarily.

“The rest of the processes, as they are opened and seeing the times, may or may not need an additional incorporation. If we open a country, later, in Central America, it is likely that an additional incorporation will not be needed because the negotiations that are already culminating, in this case with South Korea or Costa Rica that are already finished, could be assumed by the same official ”.

The commercial agenda in 2023

Vice Minister Daniel Legarda updated the status of the negotiations held by the three negotiating teams from Ecuador.

The closest agreement to sign is that of Costa Rica. “It will be the first week of March, and Minister Julio José Prado on his return from Davos (Switzerland) will announce the exact day, but the presidents will preside over that signature,” he anticipates.

Canada began internal consultations to advance negotiations for an FTA with Ecuador

Then this China, which after the announcement of the closure entered the process of consolidation of the lists and the part of the legal texts to more clearly define the specific dates on which a final document for the closure could already exist. “There are no longer technical discussions on tariffs, but if a legal consolidation of texts, an exchange and formalization that is pending and that will practically happen in February because we are on Chinese New Year dates, the Chinese team had warned us, then already The continuation of the review remains here for February, but on our side we continue working on it”, affirms the Vice Minister.

With South Korea The ninth round of negotiations is about to be confirmed for the end of March or the beginning of April in Seoul, where the Ecuadorian team hopes to technically close the agreement or leave it very close to closing with pending issues to address them virtually.

In the case of Mexico, Legarda assures that the negotiations have the technical status of open. “That is still open, but logically it is Mexico that would have to activate any response or interest based on the proposals that Ecuador clearly put on the table at the highest level of authorities, at the level of presidents.”

then with USA It is expected to continue with the dialogue of a second phase protocol during February or March, while in the United States the trade policy is finished being defined in Congress.

Later in the year there will be pending negotiations with other markets, such as with Israel, which is currently in elections, although it is expected to resume contact with the new authorities.

Legarda believes that there will surely be an update on the trade agenda due to the meetings that President Guillermo Lasso, Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Holguín and Minister Prado have held last week in Davos with their counterparts from Japan, Singapore, among other countries. “The agenda, which is very broad for the whole year, will surely be reconfigured, especially for the second half of the year. What we have mapped out is the first half of the year and depending on how the agendas move, the second half of the year will move. year”. (YO)